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Your first point is something covered in the article. When you evaluate a candidate's social skills, you really end up evaluating whether they're a good "cultur

Your first point is something covered in the article. When you evaluate a candidate's social skills, you really end up evaluating whether they're a good "cultural fit" or not, which usually means you aren't hiring a very diverse team. Wouldn't want things to be too awkward around the office by hiring someone too different. Investing time in learning a completely different stack for every job you apply for seems like a very inefficient use of time, especially when it could take you weeks to get a really good grasp on the nuances of a particular stack, but it only takes about a second for an employer to drop you from consideration. It's "possible" to be upwardly mobile, particularly in the tech field, nowadays, but it takes a certain personality type to do so. Upward mobility for driven, workaholic, A-type personalities is a pretty narrow path to success though, especially when even those personality types, given certain life circumstances, are extremely constrained in how much they are able to accomplish. So much for the meritocracy; capability counts for a lot less than the resources one already has available.

untog 14y ago
When you evaluate a candidate's social skills, you really end up evaluating whether they're a good "cultural fit" or not, which usually means you aren't hiring a very diverse team. No. I know what you're saying- that a lot of startups encourage fratty behaviour and so on, which is true. But communication skills are entirely separate, and important. It's impossible to be an effective team without communication- that's not a "cultural" thing. Investing time in learning a completely different stack for every job you apply for seems like a very inefficient use of time True- I did it just once, for the job I wanted. But you could also quite easily look at what kinds of technologies companies are using- there will be general trends that can help you.
pjungwir 14y ago
There is more to social skills than culture, and there is more to culture than race & gender (not that you said that, but the article did). I've never worked anywhere that was less willing to hire women & minorities; if anything it was the opposite, sometimes explicitly. But you do need to hire people who can work together and (depending on the job) engineers who can interact with clients. I had a hiring manager tell me once he was worried I wasn't talkative enough (though he did make me an offer). I thought that was dumb, partially because I know I'm not reluctant to communicate & debate with my team, but more because it seemed like an uncritical devotion to the cult of culture. On the other hand, I once managed an engineer who found a reason that every one of his tasks couldn't be done (in my opinion as cover for lack of competence). I wouldn't want someone like that on my team.

untog 14y ago

When you evaluate a candidate's social skills, you really end up evaluating whether they're a good "cultural fit" or not, which usually means you aren't hiring a very diverse team. No. I know what you're saying- that a lot of startups encourage fratty behaviour and so on, which is true. But communication skills are entirely separate, and important. It's impossible to be an effective team without communication- that's not a "cultural" thing. Investing time in learning a completely different stack for every job you apply for seems like a very inefficient use of time True- I did it just once, for the job I wanted. But you could also quite easily look at what kinds of technologies companies are using- there will be general trends that can help you.

pjungwir 14y ago

There is more to social skills than culture, and there is more to culture than race & gender (not that you said that, but the article did). I've never worked anywhere that was less willing to hire women & minorities; if anything it was the opposite, sometimes explicitly. But you do need to hire people who can work together and (depending on the job) engineers who can interact with clients. I had a hiring manager tell me once he was worried I wasn't talkative enough (though he did make me an offer). I thought that was dumb, partially because I know I'm not reluctant to communicate & debate with my team, but more because it seemed like an uncritical devotion to the cult of culture. On the other hand, I once managed an engineer who found a reason that every one of his tasks couldn't be done (in my opinion as cover for lack of competence). I wouldn't want someone like that on my team.